A great time for racing in the US, Indy, Canam, Nascar, they were all great. Now, not so much. Bracket racing killed drag racing for me and my friends (the over 60 hot rod crowd), but all racing is in bad shape now. I read the tv ratings for the last Nascar race and they said it was off 20% from last years ratings. Last years ratings were off 23%. Real simple math says the ratings were off 40% or more from 2 years ago. That says it all about the status of motorsports in America.

Matt,I think you said it ALL in your statement. I am in my 40s ,but STILL feel the exact same way you do about it. The 50s,60s and 70s were that "Golden Era" of racing. The 60s,early 70s would have been my FAVORITE years of drag racing personally,but I LOVED 80s Pro Stock also. Back when it was still raced by the guys who actually BUILT them! This was the last of the era of Pro Stock racing being totally "He Man/Macho" bad ***. IMHO. Then it just turned into people buying someone elses engine program and putting into a Jerry Bickle or HAAS chassis.

Reher Morrison was my team. Long live the memory of Lee Shepherd !!!! RIP

Google Southeast Gassers!! These guys are STILL having BIG FUN with 4 speeds only and limited budget olde school 60's type gassers!!! THAT is what drag racing was back in the day!! Very cool cars--- no electronics--DRIVE EM!!!

Tim, I know some of the guys in the Southeast Gassers and the Straight Axle Mafia and a few of those guys have some big budget cars!!! They do put on a good show and get appearance money at most tracks. They do bring back 60's style racing.

I DO hear what you are saying Dave,but the BIGGEST reason you only see most of those vintage Top Fuelers and Funny Cars do the cackle fest is they no longer meet safety requirements and will not certify. (Three point roll bars,outdated clutch,bellhousings,trans ,acceptable chassis construction,antiquated rear ends,etc....) Even when they restore those old dragsters,to totally update them to a TRULY certifiable car,it would NOT look much like the original car of the 60's it started out as.... I will use "The Jade Grenade" dragster as an example. When they redid that car,they just made the choice of redoing it as an original so it had the correct look,meaning the old cage was retained along with other LONG outdated T/F items. And with those features along with running 90% PLUS Nitro charges in them THEY WERE A D*MNED GRENADE AND VERY DANGEROUS !!! !!!!! And like you said some just DO NOT want to risk a historic car,but STILL could not run it like they did back in the day anyway. They could do exhibition runs at some NHRA events,but they would be limited to how hard they got to run them and STILL would be subject to safety updated further changing the car. Just another reason the car evolved out to the rear engine set up. But they do race nostalgia top fuel,but those cars do not really look like their original ancestors either sadly.

Once I got to hang out with one of my heros "Mousie Marcellus with the Winged Express.(RIP "Wild Willie") They RACE that car Nostalgia STILL!!!! But it is SEVERELY changed and not much remains ANYTHING original to do it !!! It still looks SORT OF the same ,but it is something that even bothers him not being able to keep the car MORE original and still be legal.

NHRA throws complete fits over such things! Trust me,I I have been on the WRONG side with a few infractions myself once upon a time. :/